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Crucifix War
The Crucifix War was a conflict primarily fought in Mississippi between the Klansmen Confederacy and the Brethren of the Shroud from 2268 to 2275. Fought from Forrest to the Florida Parishes, the Crucifix War had a major effect on the region, and its after-effects and successor conflicts are still being felt all the way to 2287. Background The origins of the Crucifix War traces back to 2239 when several swamper clans in the Florida Parishes were united into a confederation by the Brethren of the Shroud. In response, the Klansmen Confederacy, led by Grand Wizard Nathan Royce, attacked the Swamp Brethren Confederation in the Second Park War. The Brethren did not interfere in that conflict, since they did not want to overextend themselves. However, the Brethren did learn after that not to send Clerics west down I-20 into Klan territory. For years, they did not do this and eventually they forget why they did it in the first place. In 2268, an adventurous group of Brethren Clerics heard of a ruined city to the west inhabited by hundreds of ghouls. Eager for new converts, the naïve Clerics journeyed down I-20 and came upon the Jackson ruins, which were indeed populated mostly by ghouls. Overjoyed, the clerics quickly set about preaching Brethren doctrine, making their base in the Jackson State Capitol. What the clerics did not know was that they were being watched. The Klansmen Confederacy had outposts or "hunting lodges" in Jackson and Grand Titan Malcolm Hyde had been watching the ghouls since they entered Jackson. Hyde ignored them initially. However, he soon figured out that the mutants were "stirring up trouble" and decided to deal with them. War Jackson Massacre Grand Titan Hyde and his fellow klansmen fell upon the Brethren clerics about a week after their arrival in the Jackson ruins on December 23, 2268. The clerics, unprepared for any kind of attack, were killed to a man. The old Jackson State Capitol was burned to clean out the ghoul corpses and Grand Titan Hyde considered the affair done at that. The Calm before the Storm However, one of the clerics, a ghoul woman named Mary, managed to make it make it back to Meridian in early 2269 and report what had happened to the Bishop. Enraged, the Bishop asked the Prophet of the Shroud himself, Noah Bollinger, if he could raise an army to teach the hicks in the west a lesson. Bollinger refused the Bishop at first, since he did not want to open up another front besides the ones the Brethren were already fighting on. It took almost an entire year for the Bishop of Meridian to convince Bollinger to allow him to raise an army. When Bollinger finally repented, the Bishop raised a host of three hundred Brethren immediately and set out west on I-20, ready to dole out retribution. 1st Battle of Jackson Arriving in the Jackson ruins on March 26, 2270, the Bishop set about cleaning out the klansmen who attacked the clerics, sure that it would be an easy task. Grand Titan Hyde, seeing a forward patrol of Brethren, attempted to ambush them but was met by the main Brethren army. His Klan militia suffered severe casualties and Hyde was forced to retreat back to one the Klan's outposts. In next few days, the Brethren went from outpost to outpost, killing any klansmen they found. Grand Titan Hyde contacted the Grand Dragon in Barnett and the Grand Wizard in Cotton Bluff, asking for assistance against an invading mutant army. The Grand Dragons unanimously pledged their support in the defense of the Klansmen Confederacy and converged on Barnett with their respective Klan militia. After that, Hyde fled to Barnett, knowing that holding out in Jackson would be hopeless. The Bishop of Meridian made himself comfortable, taking up residence in the Red Road Caravan's headquarters building in the Jackson ruins. After securing Jackson, the Bishop wanted to immediately pursue the fleeing klansmen to their home, Barnett. However, his advisers urged him to wait until his forces were ready. The Bishop grudgingly accepted that. Battle of Barnett Grand Wizard Jason Manning of the Klansmen Confederacy undertook the foreboding task of uniting all the disparate Klan militias under his command and readying to retake the Jackson ruins from the mutant invaders. At that moment, the klansmen had little idea of who their enemy was and what they wanted. Also, not all the Grand Dragons had arrived yet and the ones that had were being very difficult. The Brethren had a clearer picture of what the UCK was through accounts from swampers and klansmen taken captive and tortured during the 1st Battle of Jackson. With this new information and his forces well-rested, the Bishop of Meridian marched on Barnett, assured that his Brethren levies would smash whatever small untrained militia the klansmen no doubt offered. What the Bishop did find outside was an army the same size as his prepared for a pitched battle. The Bishop, although surprised, relentlessly pressed on and met Grand Wizard Manning in battle. The battle was short, dirty, and messy, with both sides making mistakes. However, the home field advantage, as well as their dogged determination, won the battle for the Klansmen Confederacy. The Brethren army was forced to retreat back to the Jackson ruins although their death count was rather low to wait for reinforcements. Siege of Jackson Pt. 1 The Bishop of Meridian was furious that these savages defeated his army in the field and radioed back to Meridian demanding reinforcements from Prophet Bollinger. Bollinger, embarrassed and indignant, refused to aid the Bishop and told him "to get out of this yourself". Before long, the entire strength of the Klansmen Confederacy had gathered at Barnett, six hundred klansmen in all, and Grand Wizard Manning marched them south towards Brethren forces in the Jackson ruins. Informed of the large Klan army marching on him, the Bishop was torn. He knew he should probably retreat back up I-20 and accept his defeat. However, that shame would be too much, and the Bishop ordered the Brethren army to dig in for a siege. Seeing the Brethren digging in and fortifying their positions in the Jackson ruins, Grand Wizard Manning ordered the Klan army to follow suit. The Siege of Jackson had begun. In the first months of siege, skirmishes on the outskirts of the Jackson ruins were very common, with small groups of klansmen and Brethren clashing. These engagements soon became less common and by late 2271, the two armies barely interacted at all, with only the occasional gunshot being heard throughout the ruins. To try to intimidate the Brethren, the klansmen started burning large crosses outside Brethren positions. The Brethren mistook these for Catholic crucifixes like the ones they had seen in Louisiana, and that was where the name Crucifix War came from. The Brethren, being composed mostly of ghouls, could survive the siege indefinitely with very little food or water and were determined to fight on. The Klan's resources became strained maintaining the siege, but the populace of the UCK was fully behind the war. Third Park War Pt. 1 The fact the Bishop was stupid enough to get himself and his entire army trapped by these klansmen frustrated Prophet Bollinger to no end. Bollinger did not care anymore for the Bishop, but he did not want to see hundreds of mutants die for one man's vanity. So, in late 2271, Bollinger decided to contact the Swamp Brethren Confederation and have them launch a diversionary attack on the Klansmen Confederacy, specifically Lincoln. There had always been bad blood between the klansmen of Lincoln and the swampers of the Florida Parishes, so the war came to them naturally. So when the Brethren swampers starting raiding Lincoln in September of 2271, the people of Lincoln were not all that surprised and took up their own defense. As the years wore on, the raids became more damaging, and the Lincoln klansmen in the Klan army began to ask to go home to aid their families. Grand Wizard Manning refused to let them leave until the Siege of Jackson was ended. The people of Lincoln bore the raids as best they could. The Brethren swampers reveled in their raids, and the town burned. Siege of Jackson Pt. 2 Wanting to save the men in the Bishop's army, Prophet Bollinger sent Brethren reinforcements west to assist in holding out in the Jackson ruins. About one hundred Brethren levies made it down I-20 led by a Deacon and broke through Klan lines into the Jackson ruins. After that, Grand Wizard Jason Manning ramped up the attack on the Brethren inside Jackson. The Brethren managed to hold out just fine for about a year or so. However, Grand Dragon Royce of Barnett did manage to break through Brethren lines in mid-2273. This put the Bishop into a panic, as he realized the Brethren could not hold out for much longer. In late 2273, the Bishop decided to break out of Jackson to go back east to Meridian. Mobilizing all his forces, the Bishop abandoned his base at the Red Roads Caravan Headquarters and prepared to go on the offensive. In the December of 2273, the Bishop staged his breakout. The Brethren army overwhelmed the eastern Klan lines and headed east, escaping the Klan army and Grand Wizard Manning. The Klan army, angry at the Brethren's escape, proceeded to massacre most Jackson local ghoul population for "collaboration". Battle of the Wild At first, Grand Wizard Manning just wanted to let the Brethren return to Meridian with their tails between their legs. The Lincoln klansmen and their Grand Dragon supported this, as Manning released them to defend Lincoln against Brethren swampers. However, the rest of the Grand Dragons cried out for mutant blood and insisted that they pursue the Brethren army east. With that, Grand Wizard Manning led the Klan army east towards Brethren territory in the May of 2274. Reports of this further alarmed Prophet Bollinger, and he decided to recall the Bishop of Boardtown south to repel the klansmen. Giving him hillfolk and his few super mutants as reinforcements, Bollinger commanded the Bishop of Boardtown to link up with the Bishop of Meridian as quickly as possible, take command, and stage a counterattack. The Bishop of Boardtown's host met with the other Bishops in the summer of 2274 and they set up on I-20 so they could confront the Klan army directly. Faced with a larger army with a better defensive position, Grand Wizard Jason Manning decided to put his trust in his tactical knowledge, and the Klan army attacked. Thusly, the Battle of the Wild began. The Battle of the Wild was pitched on I-20 near Shadow Lake, and the two armies met with great force. The super mutants and the strategies of the Bishop of Boardtown were significant, but it was Grand Wizard Manning's tactical knowledge, specifically a false retreat that resulted in the route of the Brethren army, that won the day. The Bishop of Boardtown managed to keep the most of the host together but many others, including some valuable super mutants, simply deserted. The road to Meridian now seemed quite clear to the Klan army. Forrest Massacre However, the going east was slower than first expected. Raiders and malnutrition made the going rough and the Klan army eventually made camp on I-20 near Forrest, a Brethren-controlled town. Grand Dragon Nathan Royce II decided that he would go ahead of the rest of the Klan army with about fifty Klansmen and liberate Forrest himself. Over time, the pre-war town of Forest had moved a mile or two south and became named Forrest. It had been occupied by the Brethren only recently and was one of the few human settlements to survive the mutant conquest undamaged. Grand Dragon Royce arrived in Forrest to find it devoid of Brethren soldiers and confidently took it as a prize for the Klan. However, Royce did not know that the newest Brethren force raised to oppose the Klan army was camped nearby. The head of the camp, the Bishop of Meridian, was tipped off that a small number of Klansmen had taken Forrest and decided to redeem himself. Marching on Forrest with a two hundred strong Brethren army, the Bishop surrounded the town and systematically massacred every single one of the klansmen there, including Royce. The klansmen's bodies were thrown on a burn pile and never recovered. Battle of Forrest At first, the events of the Forrest Massacre were not fully understood by the Klan army and some thought Royce had been captured while others thought he was being raped or tortured. When the news came that he and his men were dead, the Klansmen were still enraged and Grand Wizard Manning was forced to pack up and move out, closing in on Forrest. The two armies met outside Forrest initially on February 4, 2275. The battle was the largest pitched battle of the war and soon moved into the town as the Brethren were forced back. However, (mostly) the Bishop of Boardtown and (somewhat) the Bishop of Meridian managed to force back the Klan army, holding the battlefield at Forrest but taking excessive casualties. The battle lasted for days and was determined to be indecisive. Both armies rested afterward, preparing for the next battle. Treaty of Forrest Grand Wizard Manning did not want a final battle, however. Manning knew he might be able to break the Brethren army but then what? Advance further into enemy territory and be whittled down to nothing? Manning decided not to. Sending out an emissary holding the American flag, a universal sign of peace for the Klansmen, Manning invited the Brethren to a conference where they might agree upon a peace. The Bishop of Meridian was sent to negotiate, with a constant radio connection being kept with Prophet Bollinger in Meridian as well. The two negotiators did not get along and clashed many times at first but after a week, Manning and the Bishop found some middle ground. Ten days after the negotiations started, the two managed to hammer out a treaty that satisfied both of them. Run past Prophet Bollinger and the Grand Dragons, the Treaty of Forrest was approved, and the Brethren of the Shroud and the Klansmen Confederacy were once again at peace, at least on I-20. Third Park War Pt. 2 However, the war in the Florida Parishes never truly ended, as neither side wanted to even be near each other to negotiate a separate treaty. The last big raid on Lincoln by the Swamp Brethren was in 2274, and the Klansmen have been attacking swampers for the most part recently, with its death toll actually rising in 2280. Spillover from this conflict has been mercifully small although it is endorsed by both the Klan and Brethren as necessary to maintain balance. Aftermath The Crucifix War left shattered homes, towns, and even people in its path. Forrest and the Jackson ruins were burned during battles, and some parts became irradiated. The difficulty and length of the war burned out any optimism that had occurred in the years before in both the UCK and the Brethren. The Brethren and Klan are currently on hostile terms but not at war. Now, it is just a waiting game for something to start another war. This worries both nations as a new war is the last thing either needs. Category:History Category:Mississippi